I have a CentOS server that is having some problems related to MySQL and Apache. My problem is the following error messages is scrolling accross the monitor so persistently I cannot get a login prompt: "ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket 'var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (111). How can I stop these messages from coming up on the local console so I can log into this server? This seems like a simple thing, but I can't quite figure out how to do it. I can successfully login to this server via SSH right now. Thanks.

Can you try a different console? CTRL+ALT+F2

Try "dmesg -n n" where n in a number, say 4. If it still barfs try 3 or less.